Boat Day!

Kristi takeing the plunge

     The morning was cloudy and a gecko on the bathroom wall chirped as I braided my hair and slathered some sunscreen on my face. Today was our first day on the boat and after breakfast everyone gathered their gear and headed down to the dock where capitán Cristiano was waiting to take us to our three snorkel sights, each with its own set of exciting surprises.

Fish aggregating device (FAD) of bamboo debris

Robbie swimming through the FAD and a school of herring

      Our first stop was STRI point to visit a reef and reef flat adjacent to the mangrove, which, as we learned in lecture today, is called the mangal, the habitat created by a stand of mangrove trees. Everyone geared up and splashed backwards into the grey-blue water and set out with their dive buddies to see what they could see. 

Long-Spined Urchin

     My group headed straight for a mass of branches floating a little ways off the mangal. Floating debris like this is a natural occurrence and appears in many different forms and in many different areas - from palm fronds in the open ocean to tangles of uprooted kelp back home off the Pacific Northwest Coast. These things are often called fish aggregating devices, especially when they are man made like buoys and pilings, because they attract a large number of fish. This one certainly did! There were large schools of small silvery fish, probably herring, swarming all around. In among the branches we could see a large puffer fish, small schools of yellowtail snapper, a juvenile barracuda and many others. A Spotted Eagle Ray (Aetobatus narinari) cruised below us on wing-like fins a little distance away.

     On the reef flat we saw several Long-Spined Urchins (Diadema antillarium), an important herbivore that feeds on algae on and around coral reefs. These urchins get very large, some have spines nearly a foot long! A large scale epidemic that started in Panama and spread throughout the Caribbean severely reduced the population in the 1980's so I was very excited to see them in such strong numbers.

Common Sea Fan (Gorgonia ventalina)

         
     The second site was a short boat ride away off of Isla Solarte called Hospital Point. Oropendolas flew among the trees and we could hear parrots calling to one another whenever we would surface. The reef was alive with many kinds of creatures. Brain corals, lettuce corals and other stony corals, sponges, sea fans, fire corals and tan colored zoanthids (most likely Palythoa caribaenorum) covered every rock and coral skeleton while other invertebrates and fish swarmed, fed and hid among them. 

Zoanthids and fire coral

     
      Under a deep overhang around the point a Nurse Shark (Ginglymostoma macclurei) hid and we all 
dove headfirst and held on to the corals to poke our heads under the ledge and see it. I was one of the last ones to try and I was a little bit nervous that by that time it would be annoyed of us nosy humans and poke its head back out at me just to get even! Luckily it did not and I was able to see the see the curve of it's slate grey dorsal fin in the dim light.  

 Bluehead Wrasse (left) and Yellowtail Damselfish Juveniles

      Dozens of Parrotfishes, Wrasses, Damselfishes, Grunts, Snappers, Gobies, Blennies and other fish swarmed the reef. Stoplight Parrotfish of turquoise, yellow, red and brown hues munched on coral to get at the algae growing on and inside it. Sergeant Majors swam in schools at the edge of the steep drop-off. Bright blue polka-dotted juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish darted in and out of the lettuce corals trying to hide. A Bluehead wrasse swam in front of me as I inspected an enormous spiny lobster with antennae hardly less than two feet long protecting his hideout at the mouth of an overhang.
   

Lionfish

      We also saw a Lionfish (most likely Pterais volitans)! It was swimming slowly and casually across the reef and didn't seem perturbed by groups of three or four of us at a time following it around - I guess that's one of the perks of being a top predator with venomous spines for protection! Lionfish, which are native to the Indo-Pacific, are invasive in this area as well as in the whole of the Atlantic Ocean and are becoming more and more wide spread. They have no adapted predators in their newly invaded ranges and are themselves voracious predators that feed on a variety of fish. They have been very successful and have become quite a concern for the survival of our native fish in the tropical and sub-tropical Atlantic. In spite of this, I was very excited to see this elegant, beautiful, and fearful creature.   

Climbing into the boat at Hospital Pt

Will and Theresa enjoy the sun on the ride to Mangrove Pt

     After what felt like too short a time we climbed back into the boat. I gulped some fresh water to refresh my salt-shriveled tongue and noticed the clouds start to part revealing the sun for our last snorkel sight, Mangrove Point. The water turned many shades of aqua blue as we sped across the sand flats, reefs and seagrass beds and I could see Cushion Sea Stars (Oreaster reticularis) dotting the sandy bottom. The reef off of mangrove point exploded in color with magenta and orange branching sponges with brittle stars wrapped around them. Soft corals and several species of gorgonians distinguished this site from any of the others we had seen so far. Sunlight rippled over the sandy bottom of the reef flat and the sea grass meadow sloped gently up to the mangal where Richard was collecting mangrove prop roots to look at in our afternoon lab. It was a quick stop and I felt like I could have spent at lease twice as long exploring... but then I guess I've felt that way on all the dives so far! Tonight we will try our first night snorkel, and I will try to comb my tangled salty mess of hair and anticipate what I'm sure will be another unforgettable day tomorrow!


       From Susanna DeBell for the Tropical Marine Biology and Environmental Issues class in Panama, thanks for reading!